[JvR: copy of the paper which was presented at the 3rd Sydney
International ME/CFS Scientific Research and Clinical Meeting ]

(c) Dorothy I W Morris, TSTC., HDT(Sec)., B.Voc.Ed.&Train.,
Dip.RBM., PhD Candidate, Faculty of Education, Deakin
University, Geelong, Victoria, Australia.
diwm@deakin.edu.au edm@ruralnet.net.au
Objective:
To raise awareness of medical practitioners to the full
implications of their medical certification of disability
assessment and long term disability for chronic and complex
illnesses. This includes awareness of the need for full
understanding and cognisance of the implications of all
symptoms of ME/CFS and the far reaching impact of the same.

Abstract:
This paper addresses the issue of the Cognitive Dysfunction of
ME/CFS affecting education and educational outcomes for
students and also how the present system leaves vulnerable
medical practitioners, disability officers, academics and
teachers under the Federal Disability Discrimination Act, 1992.

The doctoral research is 'The lived experience of ME/CFS: a
study in human rights and equity in tertiary education'. It has forty
participants from twenty-four of the thirty nine Australian
universities and eight TAFE/OTEN institutions. All states and
territories of Australia are represented. All participants, without
being asked, drew attention to the adverse impact of the
cognitive dysfunction of ME/CFS on their academic
experiences. The research reveals that no attention has been
given to making appropriate accommodations for this symptom.
The present situation is that the only symptom of ME/CFS which
is being accommodated in tertiary education is fatigue.

The FDDA (1992), especially Section 6, Indirect Discrimination,
allows for all persons to have equity accommodations
commensurate with their disability. Further it is not a legal
defence to say that a person did not know of their
responsibilities under this act. Currently, medical practitioners
and disability liaison officers (often allied health workers), who
are not trained educators, are forced to make assessments
outside their areas of expertise on educational outcomes.
Trained educators, capable of assessing the impact are not
involved in the making of recommendations for accommodation.
This is the equity and cognitive dysfunction dilemma in
education.
1. Introduction
The doctoral research is to ascertain the lived experience of a
group of students in tertiary (post-secondary) education in
Australia who have the chronic illness of Myalgic
Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS), and
assess their experiences from the perspective of human rights,
equity and quality of life. There seems to be a chasm between
the medical knowledge of a condition, and how it impinges on
academic progress. The complexity of the medical symptoms,
and their far-reaching impact on the ME/CFS student, has meant
that there has been many complaints amongst tertiary ME/CFS
students that their needs for suitable accommodations for
cognitive dysfunction are not being met.

The research methodology employed is critical ethnography (1).
This is exploratory research and, as the first research conducted
in a research field, it is not possible to commence with a
research hypothesis. Further questionnaires and surveys are not
appropriate for data gathering in a new research area.
2. The Research Participants.
Forty Australian students with ME/CFS from all states and
territories of Australia, representing twenty-four Australian
universities and eight TAFE/OTEN colleges were accessed for
their lived educational stories. Participants were recruited
through personal electronic mails and also a general mailing to
an Australian internet ME/CFS listserv. Additionally letters were
written to the members of the South Australian ME/CFS Student
Telephone Support network list. Snowballing also occurred
where students and non-students contacted persons whom they
perceived could be likely participants. The state ME/CFS
Societies were not accessed nor were the Disability Liaison
Officers of the Australian universities.

The participants had to meet the criteria of having been enrolled
at an Australian tertiary institution (post-secondary schooling)
post 1994, and whose medical illness complied with the Ramsay
1988 research definition (2) (with the additional six month
criteria of the Fukuda et al. (3) research definition for ME/CFS).
As Ramsay is a stricter definition than Fukuda, all participants
also met the CDC Fukuda criteria.

All persons who met these qualifying criteria were accepted into
the study. The gender breakdown was twenty-nine females, and
eleven males which approximates to the gender composition of
ME/CFS as found by Jason (4). The ages of the participants
ranged from nineteen to sixty-two years. The duration of
ME/CFS was from nine months to twenty-five years with a mean
duration of eight years.
3. Data Collection.
Computer electronic mail access was not a qualifying criterion,
and ordinary mail was accepted, so as not to limit this research
to those persons with computers. It was apparent that the use of
electronic mail as the medium of research gathering was
popular with the research participants with only five persons
sending their stories through the post (5). A participant wrote,
when returning her consent form and initial questionnaire, "I am
looking forward to writing down my experiences, I am so glad
you are doing this research, it gives so many of us a voice. Most
of the time no one wants to know."(Nola)
4. Historical background
With the advent of the new name for ME, coined in 1988 by the
Centers for Disease Control, USA, the focus changed away from
the encephalitic features of ME, to emphasis on the less serious,
but statistically more common symptom of fatigue (6). In the
public perceptions thereafter ME was thought to be merely
chronic fatigue (7). The encephalitic features have been ignored
or relegated to a secondary position (8). The present situation is
that the only symptom of ME/CFS which is being
accommodated in tertiary education is fatigue (9).

The cognitive problems of ME/CFS typically include poor
concentration and short-term memory, word-finding difficulty, and
inability to cope with multiple stimuli and then there is fragile
retrieval (10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17). Ramsay (16) says that the
person with ME/CFS is dogged by persistent profound fatigue
accompanied by a medley of symptoms such as headache,
attacks of giddiness, muscle weakness, blurred vision and/or
diplopia (double vision) and a general sense of 'feeling awful'.
Further physical problems may also intrude on persons with the
condition, such as the symptom of hyperacusis (16). There may
also be heightened environmental chemical sensitivity (18).

"Many report difficulty in saying the right word and are conscious
of the fact that they continue to say the wrong one, for example
'cold' when they mean 'hot'. Others find that they start a
sentence but cannot complete it, while some others have
difficulty comprehending the written or spoken word (2)."

Bastein (10, p.454) found almost a decade ago that:
"The patient sample had the following neuropsychological
impairments: word finding problems; subtle problems with
receptive and expressive aphasia, including intermittent
dysnomias; decreased concentration; distractability, problems in
recall, verbal more than visual, including remote memory
disturbance; dyscalculia …; both gross and fine motor problems;
spatial-perceptual dysfunction, including losing their way while
driving; some abstract reasoning disturbance, primarily
non-verbal; decreased visual discrimination; and problems in
sequencing."

According to Preston (19) brainwaves, without warning, may
change from beta (thinking) to delta and theta waves,
(associated with sleep and pre-sleep states in healthy people)
as sudden inexplicable "power drains" during cognitive
challenge. Others, such as DeMerleir, De Becker, Peterson,
Nicolson, W. Behan, McGregor, Casse, Robinson, Kilburn,
Komaroff (20) have drawn attention to their own research
findings in the areas of biochemistry, microbiology, immunology,
pathology, physiology and other medical disciplines impacting
on neurocognitive dysfunction.
5. Participant stories
Thirty five participants wrote their personal story of experiences
as a tertiary student with ME/CFS. The participants were not
directed on what they had to write, and comments were not
sought about the cognitive dysfunction: yet every story , without
exception, mentioned their difficulties in this area, and the lack of
understanding and accommodation which they received, and
which in turn affected their academic achievements and was
deleterious to their health (21). The research reveals that no
attention has been given to making appropriate
accommodations for this symptom.

"This was the most prominent problem for me - the cognitive
dysfunction, brain fog etc. As a tertiary student, you obviously
are expected to have some level of intelligence and be able to
'think on your feet' which is near impossible with brain fog. How
does one portray this to the rest of the young, fit and healthy
class, who are wondering why you are stumbling to spit out a
coherent sentence, especially when they know that yesterday you
could throw out thoughtful, witty comments along with the best of
them." (Vicki)

More time has to be spent in encoding new information, yet on
the day of an examination there can be no assurance that this
information will be able to be retrieved and utilised, as mental
fatigue will mean that the brain has apparently shut down
(22,23,24). ME/CFS students colloquially call their cognitive
dysfunction 'Brain Fog'. 'Brain Fog' occurring during an
examination would mean there would be great difficulties in
continuing the assessment. 'Brain Fog' has a variable duration,
often lasting into the next day. Most students, when 'Brain Fog'
sets in, call it a day, and know that it is no use to try and persist
with the examination. In fact, they find that paradoxically that
trying to persist will mean that they are only exacerbating the
problem - as they are faced with no other alternative but to hand
in their paper and depart the examination room: additional time
does not allow for this phenomena (25,26). And likely, many
academics and teachers, who have organised the extra time for
the ME/CFS student are left puzzling as to why the ungrateful
student left the examination early without completing the paper.

"At the time I found it hard to concentrate, sit for very long [so] I
requested another means of assessment or allowances for my
illness. The exam was to be three hours. My grades were good
I thought they would think I had valid grounds. I told the
[examination] officer that I was quite sick with CFS, and had a
Dr's certificate and needed some changes made. She told me
that she understood CFS but then went on to tell me that I could
do the exam in stages but would not be able to be let out of the
room. I then informed her that after a short time I may have to lie
down and it would take me a long time to recover enough to
start again…. I felt that she would understand the level of my
disability at the time. She told me that I would have to lie in the
corner, that was the only thing she could do. There was no way I
could lie in front of around 150 males and females adult student
and sleep to recover on the carpet floor. I would have had to
stay there for days then! I decided that I would attend the
exam and then do what I could and leave. I left 1 1/2 hours early
and did not get the grade I would have if I had been well or by
another assessment method. I didn't know about a
misadventure or request for illness and I had lost faith in the
system to help me so I didn't ask any further at the time."
(Kathryn)

Unfortunately, this experience of Kathryn was not an isolated
occurrence and stories with similar content were collected from
all states of Australia.

"My brain had had a good rest now… it seemed OK. But when I
tried to introduce it to this (to me) massive amount of new
information it was supposed to deal with - it collapsed and
completely shut down. I struggled to get through the readings for
the subject, to take in the concepts, but I just couldn't retain
anything. I found it fascinating and was desperate to learn. But
even though I went over and over and over everything, my brain
just couldn't take it in. My memory was still far from normal and
by stressing it in this way I made it far worse than it had ever
been before." (Rosemary)

"The strange things about exams, once you've got CFS, is that
the longer you have to prepare for them and the harder you work,
the sicker you get and the worse you do. So while other students
are checking timetables and saying 'Oh good, three weeks till
such and such,' you're thinking 'Oh no, what a disaster, three
weeks to prepare!' On several occasions I asked (and was
allowed) to do an exam as soon as lectures finished, sparing
myself weeks of illness and ending up with a better result."
(Marlene)

"But my brain shut down and I lost short term memory. While at
Uni I forgot where I was and what I was doing on my way to the
library. I wondered, jokingly and not yet in panic, if I had
developed amnesia. I tried the standard test- what is my name -
and couldn't think of it. My reasoning was curiously impaired,
and I finally worked out how to get home from my limited memory
access. The next day I was fine." (Barry)

These are only a few of the many extracts from the participant
stories which could have been presented here. It is immediately
obvious that these difficulties, which are being experienced by
the ME/CFS students, have a uniqueness about them: the
interrelatedness of ME/CFS with cognitive dysfunction and
physical incapacity, and the physical and mental requirements of
assessment. (Further participant comments in the endnote).
6. Disability Legislation
How can this dilemma of academic assessment requirements
be achieved, whilst also extending equity and equal opportunity
to the ME/CFS students? This problem becomes even more
acute when the present legislation is taken into account. The
Federal Disability Discrimination Act (27), is the Australian
standard for assessing disability discrimination and in education
sections 6 and 22 are particularly applicable. Section 22 is
written to explain direct discrimination in the field of education
and there is good compliance with the requirements of this section
of the Act (27a). The Federal Disability Discrimination Act (27b),
Section 6 states:

"Indirect disability discrimination
For the purposes of this Act, a person ("discriminator")
discriminates against another person ("aggrieved person") on
the ground of a disability of the aggrieved person if the
discriminator requires the aggrieved person to comply with a
requirement or condition:
(a) with which a substantially higher proportion of persons
without the disability comply or are unable to comply; and
(b) which is not reasonable having regard to the circumstances
of the case; and with which the aggrieved person does not or is
not able to comply."

Indirect Discrimination occurs when 'normal' students are able to
comply with a regulation/situation, whereas the student with the
disability cannot due to the nature of their impairment.
7. Findings
The research found that there were profound difficulties
experienced by all forty participants with cognitive dysfunction.
These findings are consistent with the research findings of those
who have used the CDC Fukuda definitions
(28,29,30,31,32,33), and others using this same definition).

Analysis revealed that generally Australian tertiary institutions
are aware of the provisions of Section 22 of the Federal
Disability Discrimination Act 1992 which is specifically for
education (27a). Evidence of apparent infringements of the
'Federal Disability Discrimination Act' 1992 emerged from the
research stories particularly in relation to Section 6, which deals
with Indirect Discrimination (27b). There were also
infringements of the Students with Disabilities: Code of Practice
for Australian Tertiary Institutions, (34) by the institutions although
having inclusive policies in place. The institutions had limited
perceptions of disability which meant they focussed on
accommodations for those students with visible disabilities (eg.
students with visual impairment, hearing impairment and who
utilised wheelchairs for mobility), where as invisible disabilities,
such as chronic illness, were overlooked. There was also
evidence of the medical model of disability emerging which
places the participant in the victim role, and affects quality of life,
human rights and equity issues.
8. Discussion
The persons with whom the students with ME/CFS have to deal
with to obtain accommodations are persons who are trained in
diverse areas of health, such a speech therapy, occupational
therapy, nursing, welfare work, etc. Students may also have to
deal with the faculty officer who has been given the task of
finding accommodations for students with a disability. The
accommodations are not designed to fit the students disability,
but rather how the student may be made to fit in with the
requirements of the institutions.

The present system means that the student with ME/CFS has to
obtain a medical certificate to obtain disability accommodations
within their tertiary institution. As ME/CFS is not accepted as a
long term disability this means that, in most institutions, there has
to be certification for each examination or accommodation (35).
The institution says that they make the accommodations which
are recommended by the student's medical practitioner. The
institutions have their guidelines (such as 36) which
they use to make accommodations for ME/CFS which are
based on traditional precedent and also on their suppositions of
what they think constitutes the medical condition of Chronic
Fatigue Syndrome.

The medical practitioner, who is requested over and over again
to provide certification, will usually name the diagnosed
condition of their patient, but is unable to provide details of how
this condition will affect the learning outcomes of their patient in
an educational setting. If a medical practitioner were to do so
they would be making education assessments outside of their
area of medical expertise. Hence it is neither professional, nor
even unethical, for a medical practitioner to attempt to try and
assess learning outcomes for the myriad of tertiary courses. The
medical practitioner will write the certificate stating that their
patient has 'Chronic Fatigue Syndrome', and maybe, because of
their patients prompting, request additional time for their patient
to allow for rest periods (as allowed by the tertiary institution
precedence procedures to supposedly accommodate Chronic
Fatigue Syndrome). The tertiary institution will then implement
their preconceived stereotype program which has never been
examined for appropriateness nor based on research findings.
Extra time is the usual accommodation which is offered to
ME/CFS students, but it is obvious that this accommodation falls
far short of being adequate, and may in itself, even constitute
indirect discrimination, as many students could find that the extra
time allowed (making the examination of longer duration) has
actually worsened their physical condition. And another question
is also raised - how much extra time needs to be allowed to
achieve equity? The student's cognitive dysfunction has been
ignored and no accommodations have been made.

The question must be asked, should the ME/CFS student with
cognitive dysfunction even be sitting examinations? Given the
medical condition symptomatology, it is questionable as to
whether examinations are an appropriate form of assessment at
all (37). Certainly the provision of allowing extra time is not an
appropriate accommodation for all students with ME/CFS.
No-one can take away from the students with ME/CFS the
symptoms of this condition which affects them, but there needs
to be a thorough investigation of appropriate accommodation
and assessment procedures (38,39).
8. Conclusion
It is apparent that ME/CFS students are being seriously
disadvantaged, both academically and also with the effects on
their physical health, when being placed in the same category as
other students with chronic illnesses, or being placed along side
students with writing difficulties, who need additional time. In
fact, the very use of examinations as a means of assessment
must be called into question.

Medical practitioners are not able to write certificates for their
ME/CFS tertiary students patients which make specific learning
assessments to ensure equity accommodations, as it is outside
of their area of medical expertise. And the persons in the tertiary
institutions are not trained to be able to assess the learning
outcomes for ME/CFS tertiary students. Currently, medical
practitioners and disability liaison officers (often with
paramedical backgrounds), who are not trained educators, are
forced to make assessments outside their areas of expertise on
educational outcomes.

This results in the current situation where ME/CFS students are
not receiving the appropriate accommodations to which they are
entitled under the Federal Disability Discrimination Act (27).
Further the act does not allow for the 'discriminator' to plead that
they did not understand they were discriminating (40). The
present system would seem to leave medical practitioners,
disability officers, academics and teachers vulnerable under the
Federal Disability Discrimination Act, 1992.
9. Dilemmas
? Who can assess the educational learning outcomes of the
cognitive dysfunction of ME/CFS subject by subject?
? Who is responsible for equity?
? What can be done?

These are the present dilemmas, dilemmas of a flawed system
which is incapable of making the appropriate accommodations
which the Federal Disability Discrimination Act (27), especially
Section 6 expects and sets out. Many students could even
challenge this lack of equity. And if legally challenged where will
the fault be found to lie - in the system, or in the persons
implementing the system? There is the likelihood of a test case
in this area and the findings will be interesting. This is the equity
and cognitive dysfunction dilemma in education.
References

8. Morris, D. 2001c 'Analysis from the Perspective of Education
of the Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Guidelines' (Guidelines
Revised Draft 2001) of the Royal Australian College of
Physicians, Sydney, NSW 2001, submitted to the Royal
Australian College of Physicians, Sydney, NSW 30 July 2001,
also published at http://www.ahmf.org/

20. AHMF., 2001, 'The Medical Practitioners' Challenge',
Proceedings of The Third International and Scientific Meeting,
convened by the Alison Hunter Memorial Foundation, 1-2
December 2001, Sydney, Australia, abstracts at
http://www.ahmf.org/

21. Morris, D. 2000b, Stories of ME/CFS and Tertiary
Education: The Lived Experience and Quality of Life. Paper
presented at the 2nd Australian Quality of Life Conference,
Melbourne, November 2000. Australian Centre on Quality of
Life. Abstract published at http://acqol.deakin.edu.au/

22. Beasley, L 1995, 'Possible Areas of Difficulty for Tertiary
Students with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome', in C. Stokes (ed.),
On a Wing and a Chair: expressions and impressions of
students with a disability, University of Canberra Student
Association, Canberra. Also reprinted in Finch, J. 1995, Energy
in the Red: Living with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Self publ.,
Sydney.

35. Morris, D. 2000a, Submission to the Draft Disability
Standards for Education from the perspective of ME/CFS.
November, 2000.
http://www.ozemail.com.au/~ddasp/Submissions.htm

36. Lockhart, A. (ed) 1991, 'Reasonable Accommodations:
Strategies for Teaching University Students with Disabilities' :
for Macquarie University, University of New South Wales,
University of Sydney and University of Technology from
Reasonable Accommodations: Teaching College Students With
Disabilities: The President's Commission On Disability
Issues,(1990) University of Maryland at College Park, USA,
Lockhart Darby: Macquarie University et al, Sydney. Also at
< http://www.anu.edu.au/secretary/disabilities/book4.html>

37. Morris, D. 2001d, What does academic assessment
assess: the case of ME/CFS? Paper presented at the Tertiary
Teaching and Learning Conference 'Tertiary Teaching and
Learning: Dealing with Diversity', Darwin, July 9-12, 2001.

38. Morris, D. 2001a, Report on the findings of the Lived
Experience of tertiary students with ME/CFS. Paper presented
and distributed to the South Australian Youth with ME (SAYME),
Fullarton Community Centre, Adelaide, 18 February, 2001. Also
at http://www.sayme.org.au Also available on video.

39. Morris, D. 2001b, Issues of Human Rights and Equity for
students with ME/CFS. Paper presented and distributed to the
academic and disability officers of the South Australian
Universities, at Disability Information Resource Centre, Gilles
Street, Adelaide, 12 noon, 21st February 2001.

40. Jones, M. & Basser Marks, L. (1998) 'The Limitations of the
use of law to promote rights: An assessment of the Disability
Discrimination Act 1992 (Cth), in M. Hauritz, C. Stampford, S.
Blencowe, (eds.), Justice for People with Disabilities: Legal and
Institutional Issues, eds., Federation, Leichhardt, NSW.
Endnote:
"Short term memory recall for terminology was a difficulty, but the
excruciating myalgia pain was very severe. ... I ceased writing for
half an hour. I did the remaining questions in severe pain and
headache - pain in my hand, arm shoulder, and neck, not only in
the muscles, but also in the nerves like a drill, which was most
distracting… I struggled to write - my hand was numb and had
pins and needles, and frozen in a cramp holding the pen. ...I
could have cried with the pain. …The last question I was too tired
to think, too pained … , so I jotted some points down. The pain
was akin to medieval torture! PS. I got HD!" (Elizabeth)

"The exam variations I have arranged thus far have included
double time and a 1 hour rest break, which was intended to be
either short rest periods or a longer rest if I needed to lie down.
Nevertheless, I have had invigilators who refuse to let me out of
the room, and it is very difficult to lie down in a small, crowded,
stuffy room - on the floor - and call it rest." (Tammie).

"My memory and concentration became very poor, and although
I have some native talent for dealing with things on the fly, when
my brain fogged too much I just lost it completely. The first time I
recall this happening was in Honours, and I managed to just
focus on the issue and ignore everything else (including the fact
that my vision had tunnelled and I couldn't really see the room)."
(Barry).

"My one remaining subject, in second-year [subject name] had
an mid-semester exam ..., which I think was worth 10%. It was a
one-hour exam to be held in our last lecture. I was having
massive concentration and memory problems and I knew I
wouldn't be able to perform normally on this exam, so I sought to
be given extra time - I applied for this through the Faculty office
and they granted it to me. However when I arrived at the
exam, the people running it did not have a clue who I was and in
fact there was no provision for me to have extra time."
(Rosemary)

"Extra time is essential, but if you take too much, you are so
exhausted by the end that you can't function properly anyway.
Going down hill as you slog through the paper happens
regardless. I discovered this when I once looked at a computer
programming paper I'd done and found simple arithmetic errors
peppering what would have been the last half hour. I'd used the
right method but ended up with nonsense because I'd calculated
3 X 2 = 4, or some such nonsense. I also noticed that in the time
left at the end I'd 'checked' the paper and changed several
things to incorrect answers. From then on I never checked an
exam paper, even if I had time left. By the time I'd gone through
it once I felt so ill that any changes were bound to be for the
worse." (Marlene).

"The nature of CFS means that attendance to many lectures is
not possible, nor is the compulsory attendance to tutorials.
Despite requests for lectures to be taped, this has always been
refused. Missing more than 3 tutorials per semester
automatically leads to the loss of 15% of my final mark and the
preclusion from sitting Supplementary Exams (which may be
necessary due to poor health on the day of the exam). There is
no concession for the fact that having CFS makes it virtually
impossible to meet this compulsory requirement. Medical
certificates are accepted only if obtained on the day of illness,
which is rather difficult when my GP is a 20 minute drive away
and I can't get off the couch!" (Tammie)

Contact Details:
Special Education Centre
University of Newcastle
CALLAGHAN
NSW 2308
AUSTRALIA
E-mail: Greg.Robinson@newcastle.edu.au
There has recently been an identification of biochemical
anomalies in people with chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS), and
the range of symptoms for CFS include visual problems, which
are similar to those reported by people identified as having a
visual sub-type of dyslexia called Irlen Syndrome (IS). These
visual problems in dyslexia have also been associated with
biochemical anomalies, in particular abnormal fatty acid
metabolism.

This paper will describe three investigations into possible
biochemical anomalies, for people with CFS and visual
processing problems. The preliminary investigation (143
subjects with CFS) identified a number of biochemical markers
associated with symptom incidence which could result in a
dysregulation of fatty acid metabolism. A more detailed analysis
involved 67 subjects with CFS divided into two groups according
to degree of symptoms of visual perceptual disability (IS).
Significant differences were found in the metabolic profiles of the
two groups, indicative of differences in connective tissue
turnover due to infection or stress. There were also indications of
alteration of neural functioning due to changes in
neurotransmitters. Preliminary results for the third study (50 IS
subjects and 50 age- and sex-matched controls) found
differences in linoleic acid, tyrosine, aspartic acid and glutamic
acid, which may indicate problems with fatty acid metabolism
and neural functioning. The IS subjects also had a significantly
higher incidence of allergies, gastrointestinal problems, kidney
infections, and a higher incidence of fatigue, headaches,
photophobia, and impaired concentration. The bacterial
saturated fatty acid C17:0 was also found to be positively
correlated with eye strain, and may indicate the presence
of a pathogen. Similar C17:0 anomalies have been found in
people with CFS.

The results of these studies confirm the association between
CFS and visual processing problems, with essential fatty acid
metabolism likely to be an indicator. The results also suggest a
need for investigation of immune system dysfunction. Dietary
intervention, targeting specific biochemical anomalies will also
be discussed as a possible treatment option.
Co-Cure
Groundbreaking Study Links Water with Heart Health

Loma Linda, California
[Bettina Krause/ANN]

Not drinking enough water could be as harmful to a person's heart as smoking, according to a study released last month by Loma Linda University and Medical Center. Researchers at the California-based institution said that drinking a sufficient amount of water every day significantly lowers the risk of coronary heart disease.

Jacqueline Chan, chief researcher on the project, told reporters at an April 25 news conference that sufficient water is as important to heart health as other factors such as diet, exercise, and abstinence from smoking. The study is the first to show a connection between levels of water intake and heart health.

Statistics gathered from a study in California showed that healthy men who drank five or more glasses of water every day had a 54 percent decrease in the risk of fatal coronary heart disease, compared with those who drank only two glasses of water. Women who drank five glasses of water each day lowered their fatal heart attack risk by 41 percent.

The data for these findings comes out of a massive research project begun in 1973 that tracked the health of more than 20,000 health-conscious Californians.

"This study needs to be replicated, and if similar results are found, then this would be the cheapest and simplest method of preventing heart disease that could be imagined," says Gary Fraser, who heads up the Health Study.

Researchers believe that drinking a high volume of plain water works to thin the blood, thus lowering the risk of blood clots. People who replaced some of the water with other fluids, such as fruit juice, milk, or soda, did not receive the same protection, researchers found.

Loma Linda University and Medical Center, established in 1905, is internationally renowned for its medical research and treatments in areas such as heart transplant surgery and non-invasive proton beam therapy for prostate and breast cancer. In its mission statement, LLUMC affirms that its purpose is to continue the "healing ministry of Jesus Christ" within "a setting of advancing medical
science."